Obama Proposes Devastating Peace Deal for Palestinians

Barack Obama doesn’t know the value of peace. He doesn’t know how to achieve peace at all. Now, one can be sure that we cannot expect a viable peace plan for the Middle East from a person who received a Nobel peace prize within 13 days of his rule, even before he began signing government papers. We cannot expect a promising peace from a person who confirms wars are needed to establish peace while receiving the Nobel peace prize. That is what Mr. Obama proved by his latest peace plan for Palestinians. It is actually more like maintaining the status quo for the Israeli state rather than delivering a peaceful state for Palestinians.

It is no wonder Israel’s Prime Minister Netanyahu is confident of convincing his pro-settler cabinet to accept the new Obama-sponsored peace deal. One is well aware of Netanyahu’s far-right views on Palestinians and their leaders, which came to light through a leaked video. It was revealed in that video that Netanyahu preferred continuously beating Palestinians till they accept what was imposed by the Israeli state as a peace deal. Given such views, his acceptance of the Obama-sponsored peace deal means a death blow to the national aspirations of the long-suffering Palestinian people.

Salient Features

Some features of Obama’s new peace deal are:

A declaration by Israel of an additional suspension of construction in the West Bank for a mere 90-day period that does not include East Jerusalem, occupied by Israel in the 1967 war but not accepted by the international community.

A pledge not to seek any extension to the settlement freeze after the expiry of 90 days even if the talks are not concluded.

A guarantee to veto any resolutions deemed to be anti-Israelbrought to the United Nations Security Council and other international organisations that seek to impose a political settlement on Israel.

A supply of $3 billion worth of war planes to Israel to maintain its qualitative edge in the region.

Signing of a more comprehensive deal by the US to enhance its substantial security aid to Israel as part of any future agreement with the Palestinians.

This is a completely one-sided deal prepared for the advantage of the Israelis. A peace deal should not be partial to either party, but should confirm the genuine aspirations on both sides.

Disrespecting International Community

First of all, the construction of settlements on occupied territories is itself a deviation from international agreements reached at the UN. Now the US is ready to violate UN resolutions in the name of peace, which is not acceptable to Palestinians and for that matter even to the international community. And the US is certifying to Israel that it is very magnanimous in accepting the 90-day construction freeze, especially considering the Israeli state did not even consider ceasing to be cruel to the Palestinian people.

A genuine peace process does not impose any time limit, if both parties and mediators really want peace to prevail. One should wonder how the US and Israel are planning to achieve peace with Palestinians who aspire to make East Jerusalem their capital for a future Palestinian state, while exempting that place from a settlement freeze. If one party does not seek to respect the views and national aspirations of the other party, it invariably confirms that the peace process is not going to begin. It proves that the US and Israel are not up for achieving peace but something else.

The US is planning to disrespect the international community, the UN, and its resolutions by agreeing to veto any resolutions deemed to be anti-Israel. So, the US is not in the mediator role, but has already begun taking sides with Israel, preempting any Palestinian contentions even before the beginning of the peace talks. It is another manifestation of the imperial intentions of the US in the region, further confirmed with the agreement to supply more war planes worth $3 billion to Israel.

US Interests

President Obama has failed to convince his counterparts at the recently concluded G-20 and APEC summits of his case on the financial front. He tried, through a proposal by Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, to limit the trade surplus to 4.5 percent of GDP of each country in a bid to reduce the US’ trade deficit with China. He had to withdraw the proposal in the face of fierce opposition from his allies Germany and Japan. He has also faced opposition to the Fed’s move to inject $600 billion into the US economy from the EU as well as the emerging market economies. The G-20 and APEC conferences concluded without success for Obama’s push for checking China’s trade surplus and yuan policy. He has failed to extend an expired strategic deal with the US’ closest ally, South Korea. Obama has had to accept the bitter truth that the US imperialist hegemony has begun to crumble.

Against this background of increasing signs of losing economic supremacy, Obama chose the military front to retain the US’ supremacy and hegemonic interests over the world. He chose the Middle East conflict to show that the US still should get its way international matters. The Middle East and South Asia have been integrated by the US into a single entity as a battlefield for retaining global supremacy. It may be recalled that Obama’s recent tour to India fetched a $10 billion trade deal and more than 50,000 jobs for America.

Now Israel and the US are in need of each other. The US has no intention of achieving peace in the Middle East and installing a Palestinian State against the interests of its ally Israel. If it angers Israel the US may have to lose its say in the Middle East region also. Instead of losing it, the US has found an opportunity to regain its global leadership. Hence the new deal with Israel has followed, preempting any viable peace deal in the Middle East. This is quite against the interests of both Israelis and Palestinians.

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“It was revealed in that video that Netanyahu preferred continuously beating Palestinians till they accept what was imposed by the Israeli state as a peace deal.”

Isn’t the Palestinians view to beat and terrorize the Jews into what the Palestinians see as an acceptable outcome?

Ruvy

Another one sided screed that beats the drums for the lies of the Husseini murderers, Sekhar. This is the same kind of trash that one would expect from the Times of India or the London Review of Books.

It is a shame you cannot move past the Arab bullshit to see the truth in this country, Sekhar. You do so well in other articles on other issues in the world. This article is worthless trash, not even deserving an answer.

Fivish

The maps are nonsense. All the land west of the Jordan is legaly, historically and moraly the Jewish home-land. To the east of the Jordan river on 78% of Palestine is the Arab state in Palestine. International law and treaty encourages Jewish settlement on all the land west of the Jordan river. The Arabs are illegaly occupying the Jewish state. Time for them to leave for one of 21 Arab and 57 Islamic states.

Ruvy

Fivish, I will not descend to the mud to answer all the garbage in this article. It simply is not worth my time or effort. The author, a highly intelligent man, should know better. But here are some links to help one who wishes to engage the author. This article discusses why UNWRA is a failure. The obfuscations of UNWRA’s head, are most revealing. This article, references why ALL of the territory of Mandate Palestine (except that of the kingdom of Jordan, with whom a treaty was signed) is the property of the Jewish People in perpetuity. It backs up your assertion that this land is ours according to international law. Have fun!

Sekhar, I have but one comment for you. Read this article. If you are unwilling to believe an Arab journalist raised in this nation, then there are no complimentary words to describe the refusal to face facts.

http://www.RoseDigitalMarketing.com Christopher Rose

Ruvy, so your latest technique is to disagree with an article, refuse to rebut it but add links to other sites where other readers might learn something that might rebut the original author?

Sounds like a man who wants to argue but knows they have no argument.

Then factor in your extremely hilarious remark “there are no complimentary words to describe the refusal to face facts”, which is, of course, entirely self-referential and we see clearly the level of doublespeak in your position.

http://financialpolitics.net/ Sekhar

@Rose: You are right Rose.

@Ruvy: What you have is biblical facts, that too, Hebrew biblical facts. You’ve said once that according to Hebrew bible, Jews came from Egypt and conquered Palestinian land (some old name, I forgot). Don’t the biblical facts vacate your contention that the land belongs to Jews? Don’t they encourage Jews to claim Egypt as theirs? Jews’ claim over Palestine depends only on biblical facts but not historical. Because, as I see, bible is a belief but not history.

Ruvy, you know I’m neither Arab to hate Jews nor Jew to hate Arabs. My writings on Middle-East conflict depend on facts that I come across through reading history books and articles. I do not possess any emotions for either Arabs or Jews. Don’t you find need to move past millennia old supposed history and cling to immediate past?

I too do not want you to waste your valuable time by posting worthless links, Ruvy. Just try to understand what is really viable for peace to prevail. One has to lose something if he wants peace. Palestinians have lost enough by 1967. If Jews offer fragmented land as Palestine state that cannot be fair. You have to understand the fact that Jews were driven away from their houses and wealth in the Europe by the European governments, as we witness now in France in the case of Roma people. Then, it was done in the name of providing reparation to the holocaust. Actually driving away Jews from Europe was a mild form of continuation of holocaust. It was the imperialist designs of British and Americans that driven away Jews from Europe.

Even then, at least majority of Palestinians learned to live with meager land provided to them by the international community. If you cannot agree with that fact, the conflict is going to last for even more decades.

@Fevish: Kindly provide me information about international treaties that encourage Jewish settlements in West Bank and East Jerusalem. I’ll be thankful to you. As far as I know, the UN resolutions do not allow Israel to build settlements in East Jerusalem and West Bank. To be specific, Israel has to withdraw to pre-1967 position. If you have information contrary to that, please provide it so that my knowledge may be refreshed. Simply giving arbitrary statements may not contribute facts.

@AC: Who attacked Gaza and killed more than 1400 Palestinian civilians? Who is blockading Gaza for 3 years without allowing them to reconstruct their demolished houses and subjecting them to hunger? Who used human shields in Gaza attack? Who is not allowing Palestinians to use the roads? Who is implementing Jews only roads like in Apartheid regime of South Africa? Who piled up 400+ nuclear heads without allowing IAEA inspectors for checking but obsessed with non-existing Iranian war heads? And you have dared to say Palestinians are of the view to beat and terrorize Jews. Even if you are correct, Palestinians are not able to implement their views, but Jewish regime is practicing its views of terrorizing Palestinians with support from the US. That itself provides what is the position of Palestinians. Isn’t it AC?

http://financialpolitics.net/ Sekhar

Ruvy, Didn’t you notice the heading? I only said “Obama proposes.” I didn’t say it was agreed. I would have written this article in another form If I knew that the verbal agreement was not taking the form of written agreement. But, Israeli cabinet was reportedly against even to those draconian proposals!

Mohideen

Sekhar, I really respect the fact-based unbiased views that you have written. It is important that people sift through all the propaganda that Americans are normally used to, when it comes to reporting about the middle east, and understand the underlying issue to get to a genuine peace. It’s is v. true Palestinians are terrorized a whole more than the Israelis are terrorized by the Pals. Just see who keeps losing more e’day. We need to stop this terror/genocide/Holocaust.

http://financialpolitics.net/ Sekhar

Ruvy, I offer the same link you provided in #6. Please go through the comments under the article.

Fivish

# Sekhar……international law and treaty: Paris Agreement, San Remo Treaty, British Mandate, Anglo-American Treaty. All pre-date the UN which is required by its charter, article 80 to enforce those laws and treaties. The UN has done the opposite!

Fivish

#sekhar….history….Palestine is the Roman Empires name for Judea as of 135AD.
Prior to that it was Israel/Judea. The Philistines were ancient Greeks who invaded Israel from the sea. The name Philistine or Phishtim translates as Foreign Invader!
You must know that the Arabs called the Jews the Palestinians until Arafat hi-jacked the name in 1964. Until then an Arab would be insulted to be called a Palestinian as it was synonymous with Jew.
You cannot erase or revise a 3,500 year history of the Jews in favour of some Arabs who mostly arrived in the 1920’s in order to reap the benefits of the Jews cultivating the land following centuries of neglect. The Arabs have no claim to the Land of Israel except through jihadist ambitions.
Even the Koran, sura 5:20-21 testifies to the true ownership of the land – Jewish!

William

I have little to add except that history did not begin in 1948 and the USA has no right to interfere in an internal dispute with illegal immigrants turned terrorists.

Gaza/West Bank is no different to Iraq or Afghanistan, full of Islamofascists! If America wants to be useful it should send troops there and wipe out the terrorists.

http://www.RoseDigitalMarketing.com Christopher Rose

Fivish, as you are sharing an IP address, is William your name or that of a friend?

Christopher Rose
Blogcritics Comments Editor

Ruvy

Mohideen,

The Arabs who fled from Mandate Palestine, are terrorized far more than Jews are. They suffer discrimination in Lebanon, where they are forbidden to even work, they suffer discrimination in Syria and Iraq, where they are forbidden to own property. No, it turns out, where these Arabs are the overwhelming majority of the population, the Kingdom of Jordan is attempting to expel all Arabs whose parents came from the Jerusalem area “to protect the security of the Holy Land”.

In addition, tens of thousands of these refugees have been murdered off in intra-Arab fighting. Zia ul-Haq, murdered off at least 15,000 civilians, and tens of thousands more have died in Lebanon.

It turns out that Arabs who are from here and who live here, (Israel, including Judea and Samaria) have the best conditions; they can work, they can hold office, they can own property, and they can vote – either for this joke, the “Palestinian Authority”, or for that other joke, the Israeli Knesset.

I say this as someone who lives in Samaria, who sees Arab highrises in towns along Hwy 60, who sees plenty of cars with Arab plates, nice cars, not junkers (like you see in Jewish villages here).

So, what we see is apartheid against “Palestinian” Arabs in Lebanon, severe discrimination in Syria and Iraq, poverty in all three lands, growing hostility to Arabs from Mandate Palestine in the Kingdom of Jordan, and relative prosperity in lands where the Shield of David flies.

Those are facts. Whether you like them or not, is not really of interest to me, unless you actually live in Israel. Then perhaps, as residents of the same country, we have differences – but we have what to talk about.

Unfortunately, Sekhar, who should know better, has written a one-sided screed that only reflects the attitudes of the Husseini criminals and murderers – the ones who founded el-FataH.

http://financialpolitics.net/ Sekhar

#13 Fivish, You have provided some information regarding the conflict. I will go through it with the information I have.

You have to answer Rose’s query in #15.

@William: When I say ‘immediate past,’ it doesn’t mean history began in 1948. Several occupations, defeats, conquerors have taken place over centuries. Can we correct them now? My suggestion is to identify the realities in their true sense instead of looking at the issue through lenses of racial or religious bias or hate. I say this, not referring your views, but the conflict as a whole.

Ruvy

Fivish/William. I suggest you answer Mr. Rose. As comments editor, he can ban you here for playing around with identities. If you are two different individuals, that is fine, so long as this is clear. If you are one individual, then stick to one name.

http://financialpolitics.net/ Sekhar

William, when it comes to an “internal dispute with illegal immigrants turned terrorists,” what US does is interference. But, when it comes to Gaza/West Bank, US has to wipe out people there which amounts to useful but not interference! Doesn’t it sound double standard?

Your hate towards people of certain religion in the name of islamofascists, and your passionate wish for Americans to wipe out them, is not acceptable in modern civilized societies, Fivish.

http://financialpolitics.net/ Sekhar

#18 Good suggestion

Mohideen

Ruvy,

You said “The Arabs who fled from Mandate Palestine, are terrorized far more than Jews are…”

I do concur with that statement and would also concede that the Palestinians that fled from the Zionist terror in 1948 are treated very poorly in the hosting neighboring countries.

These surrounding Arab countries have not only not done much good for the Pals but also colluded with the Zionist occupation in an indirect way – by allying & working with the US that is ultimately controlled by the “Israel first US second” political establishment.

Just watching the politicians trying to compete with each other during elections to show who is more Israel-friendly is a disgusting phenomenon. We saw it in the last congressional elections and you will see it again in the Presidential elections soon.

The US is very openly a DISHONEST broker and the Pals have no other choice but to participate in the successfully-failed negotiations for the foreseeable future – talks for the sake of talks with more land for the Jews and more dispossession for the Pals! Like someone said, it’s like there are two people talking about sharing a pizza while one side is actively eating it.

BTW, where the heck did you get that Zia Ul-Haq murdered 15000 Pals? Please send me your source. I am not a fan of that Pakistani ex-president, but your assertion really makes me wonder the quality of material you read.

I am sure the Pals in Israel proper are better treated than the ones in West Bank & Gaza, but it is also a fact that the Palestinian citizens of Israel are treated like second class citizens. Will you concede that the Pals in the occupied territories are inhumanely treated by the Israelis?

I have several friends in the US that were born in Jerusalem, and they cannot visit their families there because of Israeli restrictions.

I have also personally met Anna Baltzer, who is a grand-daughter of Holocaust survivor,and read her book called ‘Witness in Palestine’. She chronicles with great accuracy (as a 1st hand witness) the atrocities perpetrated on the Pals in the occupied territories. I
There are abundant material on this on the web. I’ll leave with just one video to ponder upon.

It does not matter if I win an argument or not. I only wish that there is ultimately peace & justice for both the Jewish & the Palestinian Christians & Muslims.

Ruvy

Mohideen,

It has not been easy to find clear and accurate figures on the casualties of war that is commonly known as Black September, which took place over 2 years or so, from the Battle of Karameh to the final cleanup of the PLO and its allies in Jordan. This source, a bunch of communists, cites 5,000 dead and 20,000 wounded, presumably of fighters and civilians – because Arafat’s forces numbered 15,000 all tolled. This article from Art History club.com cites between 5,000 and 10,000, but noted at the end of the article that in the civil war that surrounded Balck September tens of thousands died on both sides. A colleague of mine, Mudar Zahran, a Palestinian journalist now in England claims the casualties were in the tens of thousands. This site, at Free Republic.com, claims “Jordan killed Palestinians between 10,000 to 25,000 that’s more Palestinians in one month September 1970, than Israel has killed during the three years of heighten Palestinian suicide bombings that began in the fall of 2000. The brutality of the Jordanian Army toward Palestinian dissidents and terrorists was far more egregious than anything Israel has ever done.”

I looked at all of these and came up with a number somewhere in the middle – 15,000. I’m sticking with that because it seems backed up by the facts of war – the PLO got slaughtered by the Jordanian army, but civilians also died in their thousands.

Ruvy

Mohideen,

We agree that the United States is a very dishonest broker. They have been stabbing Israel in the back for 60 odd years and screwing over all sorts of alleged “allies”. I want the Americans out of our hair more than anything else.

But there is a whole lot more to the story that you do not see, and this involves the way the US government has managed to control Israel. I suspect that these methods, which have worked well here, have been used elsewhere as well.

Glenn Contrarian

Frankly, I see plenty of blame for everyone involved –

the Jews (who really need to hire a good PR manager),

the Arabs (who use Israel and America as an excuse when they’re actually more threatened by each other),

and the Americans (whose efforts enabled the Jewish state to survive initially but is rightly seen by all sides as a dishonest broker thanks to our internal politics)

But I think the ones who shoulder the least blame are the Palestinians – because it was their land for centuries before the British gave Chaim Weizmann the gift of a Jewish state in return for saving the British Navy in WWI (long story)…but if there’s any lesson the Palestinians can learn from the Jews, it’s that when there is no real hope of military or diplomatic victory, then it’s time to move on and build lives elsewhere just as the Jews have done all over the world from Los Angeles to Warsaw to Baghdad to Shanghai and everywhere in between.

There comes a time to forget one’s patriotic pride and concentrate on the future of one’s family. Yeah, it sucks to look at it this way, but that’s how the Jews survived for two millenia…and how the Roma and other downtrodden ethnic groups survive now.

William

Glen said: “the Palestinians – because it was their land for centuries”…where did you get that from? The Palestinians were the Jews prior to 1964. Is that who you meant? Have you bought into the fiction of the Arab-Palestinians? The Arabs mostly arrived in the 1920s. Check out the book From Time Immemorial for the details.

Mohideen

To William and Ruvy:
You guys read history or “fictional facts” written by Israel for the non-discerning minds. When the whole world has got one set of facts and Israel and it’s supporters have one set of “facts”, we know who should be considered delusional.
Ruvy, regarding Zia-ul-Haq, you still have your facts completely wrong. He is Pakistani and there is no recorded history of Pakistanis killing Palestinians in the thousands. You mentioned ‘Battle of Karameh’. Just google it and check Wikipedia. It was battle waged by Israel on Jordan to “wipe out” the PLO in Jordan. Jordan actually provided support for PLO at that time. It is sometime after that battle, when the Palestinians tried to take over Jordan as a land for the Palestinians that King Hussein put them down violently. Another point to prove that Palestinians should get their own land – atleast the mere 22% of what used to be for centuries their land. William, as for your contention that the Arabs came in 1920s, here’s a quote from Moshe Dayan:
“Jewish villages were built in the place of Arab villages. You do not even know the names of these Arab villages, and I do not blame you because geography books no longer exist. Not only do the books not exist, the Arab villages are not there either. Nahlal arose in the place of Mahlul; Kibbutz Gvat in the place of Jibta; Kibbutz Sarid in the place of Huneifis; and Kefar Yehushua in the place of Tal al-Shuman. There is not a single place built in this country that did not have a former Arab population.”

— Moshe Dayan, April 1969, Ha’aretz; quoted in Edward Said, ‘Zionism from the Standpoint of Its Victims’, Social Text, Volume 1, 1979, 7-58.

Per UN & other credible statistics, more than 500 Arab villages were razed to the ground and the population driven out to build Jewish villages. According to UN stats in 1920s, the Jewish population was under 10% and the rest were Arabs in Mandate Palestine.

Mohideen

To Ruvy:
You said US has stabbed Israel on it’s back several times. You are serious ungrateful if you are an Israeli and extremely unpatriotic if you are an American. If it were not for US’s support Israel would not have been created illegally – Just the big Western powers (US, Britain & France) created the state of Israel without consulting either the people that belonged to that land or the Security Council. It is because of the US that Israel is not imposed with Iraq/Iran style sanctions because we use our veto power, no matter how immoral Israel’s position is. It is with US money & military support that you built up your Israel. Zionists like to say that Israel is modern, technologically advanced, economic power house, blah blah blah, but yet insists on getting 3 billion US dollars year after year shamelessly. In any case, I should not expect gratefulness from you because you showed your true colors in 1967. After all that we did for you, you killed 38 of our fine Navy men in USS Liberty. You also tried a terrorist attack on the US embassy & tried to implicate the Egyptians in it (Google Lavon Affair).

http://financialpolitics.net/ Sekhar

#26&27 Mohideen, You are making the discussion here so valuable.

Ruvy & William, you two please develop the discussion with your contentions so that people like me know more about what are facts and what are dellusions. Don’t stop.

Mohideen

Hi Shekar, thanks again for your comments & your article. Our world would be a much better place if there are more balanced, truthful & honest journalists like yourself. I am from Chennai myself and I think India has a far superior media as compared to what I have seen in the US. You have a good one, Sir!

The herbal-infusion party

Ruvy writes: “Sekhar. You do so well in other articles on other issues in the world.”

I don’t agree, and I’m sure I’m not alone. Much of the time, it’s the same old bang drumming and one-sided approach.

The herbal-infusion party

Glenn Contrarian writes: “the British gave Chaim Weizmann the gift of a Jewish state in return for saving the British Navy in WWI (long story)…”

I’m all ears. Be interested to hear that one …

The herbal-infusion party

Mind you, I thought I might have heard about it before now.

Glenn Contrarian

Look up “The Making of the Atomic Bomb” by Richard Rhodes. It won the Pulitzer Prize. The below is summarized from an early chapter in that book.

Chaim Weizmann was a chemist in WWI Britain. The German u-boat blockade had been successful to the point that the British were running out of raw materials to make the gunpowder for the shells for their artillery, and especially for the guns of the absolutely crucial destroyers and cruisers of the British Navy.

Weizmann developed a synthetic explosive powerful enough for the artillery and the naval guns of the British military, and it can rightly be said that he saved the British Navy in WWI and he certainly had a great impact on the success of the war as a whole. For this reason the Crown offered him anything that he wanted that was within the power of the Crown to give…and he asked for a homeland for the Jews in British-controlled Palestine.

The British had already promised the Palestinians that they would be allowed self-rule and eventual independence, but the Crown gave the priority to the promise to Weizmann instead…which is why modern-day Israel is sometimes called the “twice-promised land”.